


TGRD Christmas Special – Christmas in the orphanage

by Antinael



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe, Christmas, Far Future, Gen, Orphans, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-05
Updated: 2015-12-05
Packaged: 2018-05-05 02:37:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5357810
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Antinael/pseuds/Antinael
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“TGRD Christmas Special – Christmas in the orphanage” is a small one chapter prequel of my Hetalia fan fiction “The Galactic Rent Debtors”. Just like The Galactic Rent Debtors, Christmas Special is a science fiction story, which takes place 1.000 years in the future, when humanity is spread throughout the planets of the Milky Way, after space travel has been invented. The characters are not anthropomorphic personifications of countries, but normal humans.</p>
<p>You don’t need to have read TGRD to understand Christmas Special. Please check out the notes at the beginning of chapter 1 of Christmas Special (which is also the only chapter of this prequel) for a short summary of TGRD.</p>
            </blockquote>





	TGRD Christmas Special – Christmas in the orphanage

**Author's Note:**

> “TGRD Christmas Special – Christmas in the orphanage” is a small one chapter prequel of my Hetalia fan fiction “The Galactic Rent Debtors”. Just like The Galactic Rent Debtors, Christmas Special is a science fiction story, which takes place 1.000 years in the future, when humanity is spread throughout the planets of the Milky Way, after space travel has been invented. The characters are not anthropomorphic personifications of countries, but normal humans.
> 
> You don’t need to have read TGRD to understand this. Here is a short summary of TGRD:
> 
> Remix (Romania) and his younger brother Horia (Moldova) live a happy life on planet Hansol, but their parents die in a space travel accident when Remix is 8 and Horia still a baby. Remix and Horia are taken to an orphanage on planet Arnakad, where they meet Vanko (Bulgaria), also an orphan. The three become best friends. Vanko is 2 years older than Remix and when Vanko is 18 and Remix 16, they convince the headmaster of the orphanage to let them go. Remix and Vanko get hired on the same maintenance ship, their jobs being that of repairing malfunctioning space ships. Everything seems to be going on perfectly in their lives. But about one year later, most of the planetary governments adopt a law which compels families of genius children to say goodbye to their children and enroll them in specially designed education centers. Horia is such a child, since he is way more mentally gifted than the average human. When Remix is about 17 and Horia about 9, they try to escape and settle down on an isolated planet. But they get caught, and Horia is forced to spend his childhood in the education center on planet Phyride, run by Ivanux (Russia). About one year passes, and from that point on, the storyline of TGRD basically begins.
> 
> TGRD is meant to be a message against the new world order. But Christmas Special is only focused on the lives of Remix, Vanko and Horia in the orphanage on Arnakad. Christmas Special takes place about 4 and a half years before the action in TGRD begins and about 3 and a half years before the law confiscating genius children is adopted.
> 
> In Christmas Special, Vanko is almost 16, Remix almost 14 and Horia 5 years and a half or so. Sooo… Vanko and Remix are teenagers : )) After finishing TGRD I wanted to write a prequel where Vanko and Remix are teenagers, and I had a lot of fun with this. And they are not emo! 
> 
> Christmas Special also explains how Remix and Vanko met Sadix (Turkey) and gives a little insight into the later moment when Horia is compelled to move to the education center run by Ivanux.
> 
> Christmas Special only features a part of the characters from TGRD.
> 
> Towards the end of Christmas Special, I mention the item known in the future as a Portable Wardrobe. Portable Wardrobes are small items, which look like gem stones. The owner can wear one as a piece of jewelry or in their pocket. The Portable Wardrobe materializes the clothes the owner has in mind, basically creating clothes in real time, wrapping around the body of the owner. I mentioned Portable Wardrobes in TGRD, but one plays an important part here.
> 
> ~Inspirations~  
> At some point in the story, Remix says “So shiny and chrome…”, when referring to an anti-gravitational motorbike. That reply is taken from the movie Mad Max: Fury Road. In the movie, the reply is in a different context, but I felt the need to use it here, like I also used a few replies from this movie in TGRD.

It was the 21st of December on planet Arnakad, as well as on most of the planets of the Milky Way, inhabited by humans. The school semester had just ended in the orphanage in Arnatown, the capital city of the planet Arnakad. As sad as the idea of orphan children may be, as bright was, in fact, the atmosphere inside the orphanage.

Glad that the semester was over, the kids and teenagers from the orphanage were either playing or smoking behind the corners of the building in the yard of the orphanage, or relaxing in their rooms and decorating their personal small, but cozy apartments.

In a room on the 5th floor of the orphanage, two teenagers and a five and a half years old kid were having loads of fun. The music was turned on loud enough so that it covered the sounds of the small household drill, but low enough as not to attract the unwanted attention of the headmaster of the orphanage. What they were doing was carving a hole in the floor, which they would later cover with the parquetry fillets which had been lying there to begin with, and afterwards cover with one of the beds. This hole would be a perfect hiding place for the drinks they were planning to enjoy on the New Year’s Eve.

The headmaster was always controlling the rooms one or two days in advance, before the New Year’s Eve, to discover any bottles of alcoholic drinks which the underage occupants of the orphanage might have introduced inside.

“This is perfect!”, exclaimed Remix, one of the room occupants, after three hours of work.

“Yeah, the headmaster won’t have the time and patience to move the bed and then start touching the floor just so he could maybe discover possible irregularities haha!”, approved Vanko, his roommate.

Just when Remix was about to put the bottles in the hole carved in the floor, his younger brother, Horia, intervened:

“But wait, it lacks something!”, said the five and a half years old kid, whose official room was actually somewhere else, but who practically lived in the same room with Remix and Vanko.

Horia quickly rushed to a corner of the room, where the tens of Christmas decoration articles, which the three hadn’t used, were lying on the floor. He returned with a piece of golden tinsel and neatly placed it on the bottom of the hole, so that it covered the whole rectangle, like a fluffy piece of carpet.

“ _Now_ you can put them in!”, said Horia cheerfully.

“Looks nice…”, said Remix, while looking at the now filled with precious liquid hole.

After an other hour, the hole was covered with parquet and Vanko’s bed was placed on top of it.

The three of them were now lying on the floor, admiring the Christmas tree they had decorated and relaxing after a hard day’s work.

“Do you think someone might have heard the drill?”, asked Vanko, while lighting a cigarette.

“Nah, everyone’s busy, plus the music was kind of loud. No worries.”, answered Remix, lighting a cigarette, too.

“I want to smoke, too...”, said Horia, who was lying between them, in a serious tone, but was quickly interrupted by Vanko and Remix yelling simultaneously:

“NO!”

“I just want to see what it’s like… come on…”, whined the kid.

“Horia, this is really bad for the health, don’t ever do this!”, said Remix, turning a bit to the side to face his younger brother.

“But then why are _you_ doing it!?”, Horia pouted.

“I’m not a good example, ok?”, answered Remix, and then pulled Horia in a tight hug. “Don’t do all the stupid things everyone else is doing…”

Horia laughed, as he enjoyed every time Remix gave him attention, which was, in fact, almost all the time, except for when Remix was doing homework or strolling through certain neighborhoods of Arnatown which he insisted that Horia shouldn’t see.

“What do you two want for Christmas?”, asked Vanko, absent minded.

“Uh… that’s a hard one.”, Remix answered. “Like every year, I want to become the galaxy’s best programmer, although I am light years away from that…”

“You are not light years away, but actually close enough.”, Vanko said, propped on an elbow and turning to face Remix, who was playing with Horia, “You are being too hard on yourself.”

“Yeah, maybe…”, Remix said in a dreamy tone. “But I still have _lots_ to learn. How about you?”

“Oh, I just wish I can get a job as soon as I turn 18 and be out of here… Live where I want…without anyone telling me what to do, or what I can bring in the room or not…”, Vanko answered idly.

“What do you want, Horia?”, asked Remix.

“A unicorn…”, answered the kid in a sleepy voice, with his head now resting on Remix’s shoulder, tired from all the playing around and decorating.

“Don’t you want something more realistic?”, asked Vanko curiously.

But Horia had just fallen asleep and didn’t hear Vanko’s question. After five minutes of lying on the floor and staring at the lights decorating the Christmas tree changing color, Remix broke the silence, but in a whisper, as not to wake Horia up:

“Hey, how can we get a unicorn?”

“Are you out of your mind?”, asked Vanko, while staring at Remix as if the latter was a fugitive from a madhouse.

“We _could_ get a unicorn…”, whispered Remix thoughtfully, ignoring Vanko’s gaze.

“I hope you _do_ know that unicorns don’t exist. And I know a pretty good asylum in the neighborhood.”

“They _do_ exist, just not in this dimension.”, answered Remix in a serious tone. “I saw them and Horia saw them, too. It’s impossible to make a portal and bring one here, but we could do with a replacement…”, Remix continued, the sneaky look in his amber eyes giving away the fact that he was up to something.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking, but you’d better stop.”, said Vanko, poker faced.

***

Two hours later, on that evening, two teenagers were sitting on the ground outside, behind a corner of the orphanage building adorned with twinkling lights, one of them holding a lap top on his lap and making the other nervous.

“Oh crap… crap… crap…”, muttered the younger of them, messy bangs of light hair covering his eyes, a striped scarf covering half of his face and hands feverishly typing various codes on the keyboard. After searching the galactinet, they found out that a merchant named Sadix would turn up somewhere near Arnatown, in order to sell some of his wares, including animals. They also found out, after researching various forums and websites, that Sadix was also known for his illegal trade, and whenever he came to a planet to officially sell something, he also intended to unofficially sell something. But that was of no interest to the two teenagers. What they wanted to find out, more Remix than Vanko actually, was where the merchant would be keeping the animals before selling them.

Not very experienced, but skilled, this was what Remix was trying to do. But since such information wasn’t displayed on the visible side of the galactinet, he was trying to find it out the hard way: through hacking.

“Shit…shit…shit…shouldn’t’ve done that… damn… must erase that…”, he was mumbling to himself.

“I can’t believe you want to steal a horse, Remix”, said Vanko, still not believing that he agreed to take part in this.

“Not stealing, but borrowing”, answered Remix seemingly absent minded, and then continued talking to himself, “fuck this stupid code…”

“You’ve been doing this for two hours, you really think it will work?”

“You have a lot of negative energy, get rid of it… crap…no…YES!”, the light haired teenager exclaimed, and if the Universe had a conscience, it would have been infused with the emotions normally associated with victory.

And what the lap top screen now displayed was the exact location where Sadix would be keeping his lively wares, before finally selling them.

“It must happen at night”, whispered Remix.

“Don’t you think that maybe perhaps there could probably exist the possibility that Horia could live without a unicorn?”, asked the more mature of the two, his green eyes searching Remix’s for a tinge of sanity.

“Yeah, but he would live less happy.”

“You are _not_ getting me involved in this.”

***

On the evening of the 23rd of December, two teenagers looking for trouble were waiting alongside the small forest clearing situated in the middle of the forest near Arnatown. They had been working on their plan the whole day. The hidden layers of the galactinet had revealed to Remix that, on that evening, Sadix’s trade ship would leave all the animals not subject to legal trade in the clearing.

On one side of the clearing, between the trees of the forest surrounding it, Vanko was crouched on the bottom of a pit, the pit being covered with a cheap carpet which resembled the ground around it. He would wait in the pit as long as necessary, and then implement the plan. The two of them had been digging the pit the whole day, and lucky for them, the earth was soft, otherwise their plan would have been nearly impossible to conduct.

On the other side of the clearing, opposite to the pit Vanko was crouched inside of, Remix was swarmed up a branch of a tree. They could communicate using small hands free devices, which each of them had stuck in one of their ears. And now, they were waiting for the night.

After two hours of waiting, it was already dark outside and Vanko was nervous and at the same time mad at himself for having accepted to be part of Remix’s wacky plan.

“This is stupid”, Vanko mumbled, knowing that the hands free device would send his message to Remix. “And suppose it works, how are we going to find the meeting place, in the middle of the night and with no light source available?!”

“It’ll be alright, if you get lost, you can give me some descriptions of where you are, maybe I can guide you…”, whispered Remix. “I’ve been studying this place for two days now.”

“A human GPS, how cool…”, answered Vanko, in no mood to talk any more.

“Updates are available. Install them now?”

“Oh, just shut up already!”

But just as they finished their small wireless conversation, the circular clearing separating them was filled with light. After a few seconds, the light was followed by a heavy space ship, which was now vertically descending towards the ground, in the middle of the clearing. When the space ship was about two meters above the ground, it stopped its descent and simply remained hovering for a moment. Then, a rectangular portion of the hull opened and fell down until the side opposite to the hull touched the ground, creating a small slanted platform, allowing whoever wanted to get out of the space ship to do so.

Suddenly, the rectangular slanted platform was filled with animals. Sheep, horses, cows, goats, ponies and even a few dogs were all urged on the platform and into the clearing by three people. The three persons were yelling at each other in order to cover the sounds made by the animals, however it was impossible for Vanko or Remix to make out what the three were saying. Remix, who was the only one of the two who could see the clearing, Vanko sitting on the bottom of the pit, couldn’t even tell whether Sadix was one of the three men or not.

After all the animals had been evacuated, two of the persons rushed inside the ship, walking on the same platform they had emerged from moments ago, only to come back to the clearing, this time carrying large, heavy anti-gravitational motorbikes with them. After a bit of what seemed to be small talk, the person who had been waiting for the two to come out with their anti-gravitational motorbikes returned to the ship. The platform was heaved upwards, and the ship arose in the air to vanish from sight in a few second’s time.

“Vankoooo… the ship flew away, but it left two guardians with anti-gravitational motorbikes. The motorbikes are so cool…”, whispered Remix.

“I’m happy for them…”

“So shiny and chrome…”, Remix continued.

“Ok, what are the guardians doing now?”, asked Vanko.

The two guardians, were now flying around the forest clearing filled with animals, circling it at an even speed, two meters above the ground. They were constantly flying opposite to each other. On the side facing the clearing, a reflector was mounted on each motorbike, sending a wide ray of light on the animals, so that each rider could have a clear view of the wares they were supposed to guard, with the help of the reflector mounted on the motorbike circling the clearing on the opposite side.

“Good that we have the homemade bomb with us.”, said Remix.

The two of them had thought of various hinders to their plan, so they also took a homemade bomb with them, just in case they would need one. The homemade bomb was a small spherical item, which Vanko kept in one of his pockets. On the surface of the small sphere, a few buttons allowed the user to program the bomb, so that it exploded on the spot, or a few minutes after pressing the red button.

“I should hit you in the head with it…”, mumbled Vanko.

“OMG, look at that pony! _That_ is the one I’m taking. It is snow white with such a rich mane! Horia would love it!”, exclaimed Remix.

“You are aware that I am sitting on the bottom of a dirty pit, covered with an even dirtier carpet, so I can’t see anything, right?”, the green eyed teenager asked.

“Vanko…I’m jumping in…3…2…1…come what may!”

When Remix finished his proclamation, one of the two riders was just hovering by the tree Remix was swarmed up in. Lucky for Remix, the rider’s attention was solely focused on the lively wares, back against the forest surrounding the clearing. So the rider didn’t see Remix quickly jumping off the branch of the tree he had been climbed upon and catching hold of one of the pipes adorning the side of the motorbike facing the forest.

The rider continued circling the clearing as if nothing happened, not having any clue that a teenager dressed in black was clambered on one side of the motorbike.

“Ok, Vanko.”, whispered Remix. “I jumped one of the bikes and now I’m kinda hovering in the air. I’m just waiting until the bike reaches the white pony so I can jump on it and be away. Just detonate the bomb when I give the signal and run for it.”, Remix whispered, adrenaline pumping into his veins, and feeling a bit scared all of a sudden. But it was too late to turn back now, he thought. Come what may…

“Ok… I’m waiting…”, Vanko answered, and by the sound of his voice, Remix could tell Vanko was feeling the same rush of adrenaline and excitement.

Remix managed to clamber a bit lower, still holding on to the various pipes and decorations embellishing the anti-gravitational motorbike he wished so badly to own. *That would surely impress _her_ *, thought Remix to himself, his mind shortly wandering towards a girl from the orphanage he quite liked. *She doesn’t even know I exist, maybe if I had such a vehicle, she would find out*, his thoughts lingered in the same direction.

This complex acrobatic was way harder than he had imagined. His arms were hurting and he didn’t know how long he would resist before falling down. But he quickly got a hold of himself, when he saw the white pony he desired right in front of the hovering motorbike he was clambered upon.

Five meters…

“Vanko…”

Four meters…

“Detonate the bomb now!”

Three meters…

The side of the clearing opposite to where Remix was hovering in the air and getting ready to jump the pony beneath was suddenly filled with green smoke and with the sounds of an explosion.

Two meters…

Both rays of light coming from the reflectors mounted on the side of each motorbike facing the clearing suddenly changed their direction, in order to shine on the place where the green smoke had emerged from. For a few seconds, the animals in the clearing got swallowed by darkness.

Vanko was now running towards their agreed meeting place, the curtain of green smoke hiding and protecting him from being discovered. He was running as fast as he could, not thinking about anything, only wishing he could reach the meeting place as soon as possible.

*I hope that idiot is ok*, was the only thought he was capable of.

One meter…

Remix let go of the pipes mounted on the motorbike and jumped on the back of the white pony. This could turn out really bad or extremely good. Lucky for him, the pony was very tame and didn’t mind suddenly carrying a teenager on its back and being urged on towards the dark forest.

*I hope Vanko is ok*, thought Remix to himself.

And he continued riding the pony through the blackness of the forest, in a somewhat opposite direction Vanko had started running towards. But their ways would curve and then intersect at the meeting place, as discussed and simulated on Remix’s lap top.

The noise coming from the clearing could still be heard. The incident with the homemade bomb had clearly made the animals nervous, which one could tell by the sounds coming from the lively wares. The angry yells of the guardians could also be heard.

When he estimated that he was at a safe distance from the clearing, Remix stopped and jumped off the pony. He petted the mild white pony on its head and talked with a loving voice:

“You are so sweet and tame. You’ll make someone very happy.”

Then, the light haired teenager dressed in black continued driving the pony towards the meeting place, where he hoped he would meet Vanko, safe and sound.

***

At 3 A.M., while the winter sky was still dark blue, Remix met Vanko near an abandoned wooden cottage at the edge of the forest near Arnatown, which was their agreed meeting place. The latter had arrived half an hour before Remix, and was lying on the ground ready to give up everything and call the Galactic Police if his friend wouldn’t show up soon.

When he finally saw Remix emerging from the forest with a wide victorious grin on his face and accompanied by a lovely white pony, Vanko jumped to his feet and ran towards Remix.

“I was worried, what took you so long?”, Vanko asked.

“It is his fault”, and Remix pointed towards the innocent pony. “He had certain needs in the middle of the night and we had to take a break at one point. But better in the forest than in our room, anyway.”

“We’d better get going if we want to nail the hour.”, said Vanko in a hurry.

“Right! And we must stop on the way at the sweets shop, too.”, Remix reminded Vanko, making the latter roll his eyes.

The orphanage would open its gates at 6 A.M. and they would have to get in before everyone woke up, which was fortunately later than usual, since it was the Christmas holiday. They had to walk their way to the orphanage, since no driver of any means of public transportation would ever accept a pony as a passenger. If they hurried, they could make it before 8 A.M., when the atmosphere would become a little agitated. So they started walking.

The streets of Arnatown were empty, like any town streets during the Christmas holiday, when the weather is cold and no sane person would get out of bed for a walk outside at such early hours. This was of great help to Remix and Vanko, but they still chose to walk their way to the orphanage through small dark alleys, just to avoid curious stares.

On their way, Remix stopped by the sweets shop, while Vanko was waiting in a narrow alley between a warehouse and an abandoned building, with the pony by his side. When Remix returned from the sweets shop, he showed Vanko a long conical candy, in the shape of the horn of a unicorn, in colorful stripes and nicely wrapped in half opaque golden cellophane.

“Lovely”, said Vanko a bit ironical. “Now can we be finished?”

“Yeah…”, answered Remix, “the final touch…”

Remix unwrapped the conical candy and let just a droplet of superglue from the tube he was carrying in his pocket fall on the base of the cone-shaped candy. Then he carefully placed the candy, base downwards, on the forehead of the pony, which seemed to be ok with it. It only took a few seconds for the glue to dry and thus, for the pony to turn into a unicorn.

Remix was almost glowing with happiness.

“It looks so lovely”, he said, and petted the unicorn on its head.

Vanko, who wasn’t the type to easily get emotional, couldn’t help but feel moved by the whole scene.

“Yeah… It does”, he said.

***

It was 7 A.M. when they reached the orphanage. As expected, the gates of the yard were open, but the biggest challenge was introducing the unicorn inside the building. The orphanage was designed in such a way, that after one entered the building through the main entrance, the visitor was welcome by a huge hall. Two stairways leading to the first floor could be seen at both ends of the hall, to the left and to the right of the entrance.

Directly in front of the entrance, and opposite to it, was the headmaster’s office, with its door constantly open. Vanko and Remix didn’t believe that the door would be open at this early hour on the 24th of December, given the fact that even the most workaholic people were enjoying the Christmas holiday. They didn’t worry about possible members of the personnel seeing them bringing a unicorn inside the building either, since they had befriended almost all the employees in the past and believed the said employees could keep a secret.

So, the two adventurers entered the orphanage. The hall was empty, which meant no one had woken up yet. As expected, the door to the headmaster’s office was closed. _That_ was a relief!

They proceeded to their room, turning left in order to climb the stairs to the first floor, and then to the fifth, where their room was. Unexpectedly, some voices could be heard from the headmaster’s office. Weirdly, it seemed that the headmaster had _visitors_!

As the two, accompanied by their freshly stolen unicorn turned left, the voice of the headmaster could faintly be heard:

“Mr. Ivanux, why did you come, _after_ all? No law stating that genius children must be enrolled in special education centers has been adopted yet! Why don’t we talk when the said alleged law is adopted, this conversation is useless…”

Remix turned his head curiously to the closed door, thinking how awkward the dialog must be, but was quickly scolded by Vanko:

“Come on already, we don’t want to get caught!”

And thus, the weird reply of the headmaster, in a context Remix had no knowledge of, was quickly forgotten, as if it had never been heard to begin with.

***

The next 4 days went by fast, especially for Horia, as time always passes faster when one has fun. When Remix and Vanko had brought the unicorn in their room, which was also unofficially Horia’s room, Horia had been sleeping tight in Remix’s bed. The boy was overwhelmed with joy as he saw the unicorn, and it seemed that the fun would never end. In the following nights, when everyone was sleeping, Horia would get out of the room, on the hallway of the fifth floor, where he would ride the unicorn undisturbed, surrounded by darkness.

Of course, a few close friends of the three room occupants, four including the unicorn, knew about the animal, but didn’t tell anyone else about the secret.

But on the evening of the 27th of December, as the headmaster of the orphanage was strolling along the hallway of the fifth floor, he sensed an unpleasant smell coming from Vanko and Remix’s room. The headmaster stopped in disgusted awe in front of the door where the smell was coming from. Without knocking, he entered.

Remix, Vanko and Horia ceased their motion, as if immortalized in a photograph. What they had been doing was gathering unicorn poop from the floor and putting it in bags, to be somehow taken out of the building afterwards.

“What is the meaning of this?”, the headmaster asked, almost unable to believe his own eyes.

“The meaning of life?”, Remix dared answer. “I’m afraid I don’t know yet, but if you want, I can…”

“You three!”, the headmaster interrupted Remix, while all three were looking at him with the eyes of sad puppies, which know they did something wrong.

“Four actually…”, Horia dared mumble.

“Horia, go to your room!”, the headmaster said, in a huge effort to control the anger in his voice.

“But this _is_ my room…”, the boy whined, at which point Remix turned to face him, put his hands on the boy’s shoulders and said softly:

“Horia _please_ , I think we’re in trouble. You can come back later…”

Horia quickly laid the bag, half full of unicorn poop, on the floor, and left the room, closing the door behind him.

The headmaster breathed in and out slowly, as if counting to ten in his mind, and then spoke in an authoritative tone:

“You two are coming to my office. Not before you clean this _disaster_. Needless to say that you will be sanctioned. I’ll give you extra activities, and, of course, no pocket money for the next month.”

“But…”, Remix tried to utter, knowing than no pocket money meant no money for cigarettes.

“NO BUTS! I await you both in my office.”, and the headmaster left the room, slamming the door behind him.

***

The next day, the yard of the orphanage was almost empty, as most of the occupants were making various preparations for the New Year’s Eve. But Vanko, Remix and Horia were in the yard, clearing off the snow, equipped with large shovels. Technically speaking, Horia wasn’t punished, but he preferred to help Remix and Vanko, as much as he could.

After a hard day’s work, they took a small break, and were talking nonsense, each of them propped on the long handle of his shovel.

“No money for the next month…”, mumbled Vanko in a low tone.

“I know… But it was worth it…”, Remix answered.

“We have to be on the watch in the next months, if we feel like breaking the rules again…”, said Horia.

“I like the way you think, Horia”, Remix said.

But just as they were standing in the yard and talking, they saw a man coming out of the orphanage building and walking across the yard, heading for the gates of the yard. He was tall, and as they could tell, also young. He was wearing a long coat and a large scarf was waving in the wind behind him, as he kept on walking, seemingly in a hurry. The man had a worried, but also serene expression on his face, and seemed to be dwelling in his own thoughts.

Remix, Vanko and Horia were idly looking at him, out of pure boredom, not particularly interested in the unknown visitor. The visitor was now about ten meters away from the trio, and, just when they were expecting it the least, he stopped on the spot and turned around to look at them.

Remix and Vanko suddenly got uneasy, but Horia smiled to the man. The visitor’s expression turned a bit sad when faced with Remix and Vanko’s defensive attitude, but quickly lightened up, as he saw Horia smiling. The man waved to Horia, which made Remix quickly and a bit brutally lay his arm protectively around Horia’s shoulders, making the boy take one step backwards. The visitor quickly turned around and finally headed towards the exit of the yard. But Vanko and Remix, the latter still holding an arm around Horia’s shoulders, remained staring at the exit, overwhelmed by an unpleasant feeling.

“Brother…”, Horia said a bit amused, as he was leaning on Remix, “he didn’t look dangerous and someone _did_ allow him in, you’re acting strange…”

“He is strange…”, Remix whispered, his eyes still fixed on the gates of the yard.

“I think it was enough for today”, Vanko said aloud, trying to put an end to the awkward moment. “Why don’t we go inside…”

And they went inside, completely forgetting about the strange visitor, and had a great New Year’s Eve.

***

The day after the New Year’s Eve, Vanko and Remix were strolling through Arnatown, still sleepy from the party from the previous night, yet in no mood to spend the day in their room.

“OMG, you should’ve seen his face when the petard exploded in the middle of the room, too bad you missed that!”, said Remix aloud.

“I was on an important mission, I just regret not witnessing the headmaster’s face when he saw the fake vomit on his window this morning haha!”, Vanko answered.

But the faint light coming from the sun on this wonderfully overcast day was suddenly eclipsed by the silhouette of a tall, well-build man, blocking their advance, hands propped on his waist, smugly grinning at them. His dark green eyes were piercing the two teenagers through the glass lenses of a white electronic mask covering half of his face, the type of mask with many small buttons and switches on the sides, from where the owner could command the mask what to display in the lenses covering the eyes: the situation of the space ships traffic, the weather on various planets, a map of the galaxy and many other things, of great use to a trader. He looked about 10 years older than Vanko.

“What a lovely day, kids!”, said the man, in a strong and cheerful, yet menacing tone.

Vanko and Remix instantly knew who the man was. And they also knew they were in trouble. Again. But this didn’t stop Remix from answering the angry merchant:

“It would be if you weren’t blocking the sun…”

At which point both Remix and Vanko took one step back, their eyes still fixed on the grinning man in front of them, bumping into two solid men, who were probably Sadix’s people who had been following Remix and Vanko for a while. Realizing that they couldn’t run in the opposite direction got both of them worried, however, they managed not to show it.

“Haha”, Sadix let out the confident laughter of one in total control of things, while producing a thin silver bracelet with a green Portable Wardrobe attached to it, from one of the pockets of his coat. “I believe this is yours, kids!”

Vanko became pale all of a sudden and managed to utter:

“Shit! I’ve been looking all over for it!”

“Seems like someone wasn’t being vigilant enough when committing a felony. I found it lying on the ground near the clearing.”, said Sadix, his superior smile now being replaced by a serious expression.

“But… how do you even know it’s mine?”, Vanko asked, unable to hide his astonishment.

“Kid, I did some investigations, identified the seller, identified the customer, you don’t become the best merchant of the galaxy for nothing! And now, boys…”, Sadix suddenly addressed the two massive men behind Remix and Vanko, at which point each of the two lost teenagers got to feel the cold touch of the barrel of an energetic gun propped on the back of his head.

Remix and Vanko both knew that Sadix wouldn’t shoot them with a normal gun, thus killing them, at least not for stealing a pony. Sadix was no doubt a tough person, who had made it far in life not by being very friendly and forgiving, but definitely not a criminal. But there were also the energetic guns… One wouldn’t die by being shot with such a gun. Instead, the victim was left paralyzed and in unbearable pain for the next two or three days.

Sadix’s attention switched again from his two companions to Vanko and Remix, and the merchant asked:

“Any last wishes…?”

To which Remix instantly answered:

“Actually… I was wondering if I could borrow one of your anti-gravitational motorbikes just for one day…”

“Idiot!”, Vanko suddenly interrupted his friend, stressed out and angry at the whole situation, “We’re in trouble and you keep thinking about impressing a silly girl!”

Remix turned to face Vanko, suddenly angry that the latter had insulted the object of his admiration:

“She’s not silly! She’s the smartest and most beautiful being whoever walked the surface of Arnakad!”

But Sadix rolled his eyes in total exasperation and addressed his two companions who had been pointing their energetic guns at the two teenagers:

“Boys… you know what to do.”

Remix and Vanko became even more pale, knowing that this was too much trouble even for them. The thought of the headmaster finding out that they had been involved in a neighborhood fight was scaring them way more than the idea of being shot with energetic guns.

But then, Remix saw it. A dead pixel on the screen of Sadix’s massive electronic watch wrapped around the merchant’s left wrist.

“Wait! We can repair that!”, Remix yelled, pointing at Sadix’s beloved watch, which was actually a gift from the merchant’s mother.

Sadix waved at his two companions, indicating that they shouldn’t pull the triggers just yet. He then carefully examined his beloved watch. Of course he knew the item had this issue. But all the technical support centers had said that nothing could be done and that the watch was old anyway, so why wouldn’t Sadix buy a new one instead. But those people from the technical support centers could never understand the emotional value of an item…

“Kid, if this is a dirty trick…”, Sadix addressed Remix in a menacing tone.

“No! It’s a clean trick, please, we can repair it, in only takes a few minutes!”, Remix said in a haste.

Sadix took off his watch and put it on the ground in front of Remix and Vanko. Without a word, the two dashed upon the watch, disassembled it, made the necessary fixes and reassembled it again. After ten minutes of intense work, Vanko handed the watch to Sadix.

Sadix took it, carefully analyzed it and couldn’t believe his eyes. Not only was the dead pixel gone, but the resolution of the small electronic screen was way better than before.

“Kids… I can’t believe you repaired it…”, said Sadix, unable to hide his surprise.

“It was piece of cake, really”, answered Remix. “How about an anti-gravitational…”, but was quickly interrupted by the cold touch of the barrel of the energetic gun, held by one of Sadix’s companions and again propped on the back of his head. The same thing also happened to Vanko.

“Kids, kids, kids!”, Sadix said aloud, “You still don’t understand. If you behave, your technical support service will spare you of spending the next 3 days paralyzed in pain in your beds, if anyone finds you and takes you home, that is, otherwise you’ll just lye paralyzed in the street. You have an item which belongs to _me_ …”

“But we don’t have it anymore!”, Remix answered. “The headmaster of the orphanage confiscated it and we don’t know where it is!”

“So you two are orphans…”, Sadix said, just a bit softer than before, apparently a little moved. “It must be hard for you, kids.”

“That’s none of your business!”, Vanko exclaimed aloud. “Look, when do you want the pony?”

“You have one day, kids.”, Sadix answered in a grave tone. “In one day from now, the white pony must be in the exact location you stole it from. And remember kids… Now I know where you live…”

Sadix’s last sentence made Vanko give Remix an accusing look and say, annoyed with the whole situation:

“Oh great, you just _had_ to reveal where we live…”

“Oh really, who dropped their precious Portable Wardrobe on the ground, huh?”

But their small quarrel was interrupted by Sadix’s authoritative voice:

“Kids, kids, kids! Don’t start fighting now! You’ve got a white pony to fetch!”

And with that, Sadix and his two mates left Vanko and Remix staring at each other in the middle of the road. The thought of having to ask the headmaster where he had taken the pony was stressing them out. Especially given how pissed the headmaster was at them since he had found the pony in their room. And what if he wouldn’t want to tell them? What if he had sold the pony to someone else?

“We’re in trouble…”, said Vanko, with an empty gaze.

“I guess you’re right… But even if I hadn’t told him where we live, he could still find out somehow…”

“Yeah… That’s true.”, said Vanko, as the two started walking in slow motion towards the orphanage, trying to postpone the inevitable discussion with the headmaster as much as they could. “And it’s my fault, after all. I should’ve been more careful with my own things.”

“Don’t worry, Vanko. We’ll survive. And if we manage to bring the pony sooner than he wants, maybe we could convince him to lend us an anti-gravitational motorbike…”, said Remix full of hope.

“Will you stop with the stupid motorbike geez!”

The overcast sky had a silver nature to it and the buildings of Arnatown they were passing by were still embellished with twinkling Christmas decorations. After a few minutes of walking towards the orphanage, they were already feeling that no problem is too hard.


End file.
